- SEC to Issue Technology Regulations for Capital Market
The Securities and Exchange Commission has said it will soon come out with regulations that will guide technology products in the capital market.
This was disclosed by the acting Director General, SEC, Mary Uduk, during the presentation of a lecture by the Vice President, Financial Technology Association of Nigeria, Ade Bajomo, in Abuja, on Wednesday.
She said the intention to issue new regulations was aimed at transitioning towards a technology-driven capital market as well as protect investors, according to a statement by SEC.
Uduk, who also announced Bajomo as the chair, Capital Market Committee on Fintech Roadmap for Capital Markets in Nigeria, said the SEC, as the apex regulator of the Nigerian capital market, was interested in the investments that Nigerians were making, especially with the advent of digitalisation.
She said, “If we will regulate this market and understand what is happening, we need our staff to understand the rudiments of fintech. Very soon, the whole world will move to technology for regulation. Other jurisdictions have already gone far into it with some of them already amending their rules in that direction.
“The International Organisation of Securities Commissions is on it and there is a lot on it already all over the world, and we cannot be left behind. We are very much interested in some of the most active areas of fintech innovation like block chain technology, crypto currencies and how they affect investors.”
She stated that as regulators of the capital market, it was the responsibility of the SEC to find out how such investments were going on and if they met set standards.
According to her, when investors lose money, they will come back to SEC.
She said that was the reason SEC was seeking to understand what fintech was all about to enable it to regulate the market properly.
Uduk recalled that the Capital Market Committee, in its last meeting in Lagos, agreed to set up a committee to draw a fintech adoption road map for the capital market.
She stated that there was a need for the capital market to take advantage of the fintech offerings going forward.
According to her, the capital market needs to create an enabling environment that is attractive enough for fintechs to innovate and engage actively with the new trend in technology.
Bajomo, who is also the executive director, information technology and operations, Access Bank Plc, expressed the need for regulators to understand where the world was moving towards.
He said, “Our markets have to reposition to provide the proper regulations to facilitate entry and exit, which will lead to raising of funds, bringing of new products and driving the fintech revolution.”
